Haunt
by Eternal Dumas
Summary: AU Sawada Yukio meets Byakuran, and learns what it's like to deal with the dead that refuse to move on. fem!27 100fem!27
1. The White Mansion in the Woods

**AN: **Although I should be taking this time to update other things, in the spirit of Halloween I decided to write this thing instead. Technically, it's a late Halloween story, but still, only by like, ten minutes!

Just so everyone knows, I don't usually write horror and this will be about my first forage into the genre so please be gentle. Constructive criticism is welcomed though, as it helps authors like me improve greatly. Flames, however, will be ignored so please read the warnings below before continuing.

**Warning: contains gender-bending (but only Tsuna), disturbing themes (i.e. psychotic people) and AU If any of these things make you squeamish or uncomfortable, please press the back button now!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR. If I did, 10027 would probably be canon.  
**

* * *

The gods must have cursed Sawada Yukio on the day she was born. How else could she explain getting lost in the city she had spent her entire life in and then having her cell phone promptly die on her when she had tried calling for help?

"Why does life hate me so?" She asked, to no one in particular, perhaps hoping said gods would hear her.

She mourned for the loss of the day, most of which she had spent trekking through miles and miles of forest. Luckily, it was still early spring so there were few, if any bugs out. If there was one thing Yukio hated about nature, it was the bugs.

"Stupid father, telling me to get up early for a hiking trip he had already canceled and forgetting to tell me until after I got off the bus," she grumbled under her breath, yanking at the ends of her long brown hair that she tied back in a ponytail.

She glared sullenly at the tree branches in front of her, brushing them back as she walked deeper into the forest. Lucky for her, she had remembered to wear jeans and a long-sleeved jacket that kept the stray branches from scratching at her skin. She sighed, wistfully thinking about how she would have spent her day if her stupid excuse of a father hadn't thrown her for a loop.

She would start the day by eating breakfast with Fuuta. Her younger brother would tell her about the latest rankings he had done, whether it be on the cutest stuffed animals on sale or the cheapest place to buy fresh vegetables and she would listen, quickly wolfing down her breakfast when she realized it was almost time for her tutor to come over. The home tutor that her father had hired, Reborn, was a tall dark man with the strangely curled sideburns who always wore a black two-piece suit and a fedora whenever he came. Reborn frightened Yukio, even more with his Spartan-like training that he claimed would "help her in the near future".

"More like kill me in the near future," she muttered, absentmindedly rubbing her sore shoulder where she had fallen down the stairs after setting off one of Reborn's traps there. "What kind of home tutor sets traps in their student's home?"

But after Reborn left, Yukio's two closest friends would come over and that would always brighten her day. She had known Gokudera and Yamamoto since they were in junior high together. She had befriended Gokudera after saving him from getting hit by a car and Yamamoto when she had managed to stop him from committing suicide after he broke his arm and couldn't play baseball for a month.

She could always tell the two of them were coming over by Gokudera's loud voice as he yelled at Yamamoto to stop following him to Hime's (a nickname Gokudera had given her after she saved his life, refusing to call her anything else) house. Yamamoto, of course, would laugh which would irritate Gokudera even more and make him go on an even longer tirade until Yukio appeared. The three of them would then head off to the town center, or the park or maybe even the river--whatever they felt like doing that day.

_'I could be at the park playing baseball with Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto. Fuuta too, if he felt up to it and then maybe Kyoko-chan and Haru-chan would come around too and play. Gokudera-kun wouldn't like that though he and Haru-chan always fight.__ After that Kyoko-chan's Onii-san would appear out of nowhere, probably doing some sort of extreme exercise, as he would call it.'_

Yukio chuckled at the image in her head and suddenly became despondent. '_But all of this is just a daydream if I don't figure out how to get back.'_

She looked around her, trying to see if there was anything familiar. She had gone into the forests around Namimori before, but now she was in so deep she could barely distinguish the sun through the interlocked tree branches.

She sighed again, her head drooping. _'This is just my luck. I get stuck in the forest alone with my cell phone dead and having absolutely no idea where to go.'_

Tears began to sting her eyes but she brushed them away quickly. She was a grown girl for goodness sakes, she would not cry! If Reborn saw her like this, he'd no doubt make her go through double the rounds of hellish training for looking like such a weak and pathetic damsel.

_'I'll get out of here,'_ she told herself resolutely. _'The forest isn't that big, I'll definitely reach town soon.'_

But even thinking that made no difference. If her memory wasn't wrong, she had just passed by the same whitened oak tree for the third time. She slumped to the ground; despair welling up in her chest.

_'That's it I'm lost. There's no way I'm getting out of here, I'm just dame Yuki after all.'_

The nickname had haunted her since junior high and continued to stick to her, despite her (very gradually) rising grades and improved, larger circle of friends. It had been the one thing in her past she had been trying to escape from but here, alone in the forest with the hundreds of trees pressing down on her ominously, every single bad memory about her "dame" days were coming back.

_**"Dame Yuki, can't you even throw a ball properly?"**_

_**"Haha, dame Yuki tripped again!"**_

_**"Dame Yuki's such an embarrassment. I can't believe she's still willing to show her face here."**_

Biting her lip and vigorously shaking her head, she dispelled those memories from her mind shaking them away like pesky insects. '_I'm not like that anymore,' _she kept on telling herself. _'I'm not dame Yuki anymore, I'm not!'_

While she was convincing herself of that, she had started walking again, her feet taking her perhaps even deeper into the woods. But soon, she stumbled (literally) into a clearing. When she looked up after pulling herself off from the ground, she saw a sight that made her jaw drop.

An elegant white mansion towered above her, at least with four flours and two wings branching out from the main house. Yukio was dumbfounded. There was a mansion in a place like this? Who lived here? It didn't look abandoned, if the newly cleaned windows and properly hinged, large oak front doors were anything to judge by.

'_Must be a rich hermit or something,' _she thought as she dusted off the dirt on her jeans. _'I hope they have a telephone I can use.'_

She began walking towards the mansion; it's white exterior seeming strangely out of place in such a wild and untamed area.

She knocked on the door twice seeing as there was no doorbell, and waited. After a minute she knocked again, this time a little harder. Moments later, the door opened and a messy red-haired man wearing glasses and a suit appeared. He blinked when he saw Yukio there, standing timidly in front and covered with stray pieces of twig that managed to stick onto her jakcet. The red-haired man didn't seem to be willing to say anything first so Yukio forced herself to speak up.

"E-Excuse me," she began, nervously stuttering and slightly frightened of the way the man was looking at her. He looked very...intense, and it reminded Yukio strongly of Ryohei. "I-I-I was wondering if I could use the phone in here. I got lost, you see and saw the mansion so I was hoping I could into contact with my family."

The man said nothing. Yukio began sweating buckets. Did she say something wrong? Was she intruding and being overbearing? But all she had done was knock on the door! Wasn't it normal for people to ask others for help when they were in need? Surely the people living in this house (because the red-head certainly couldn't be the only one living here, the place looked too big for him to keep clean alone) would be willing to help her. Yet, judging from the man's silence Yukio didn't think so anymore.

She began to nervously laugh, tugging at the hem of her jacket. "N-never mind then. I-I'll just find my own way back, sorry for bothering you."

"Wait." The red-head finally spoke, reaching out to grab hold of Yukio's elbow. "You can see this place?"

"Eh?" A question mark hovered above Yukio's head. "Of course I can."

_'Kind of hard to not notice a mansion as large as this in the middle of nowhere,'_ she silently added as the red-head continued to stare at her, making her feel exceedingly uncomfortable.

"Come in," he finally said, letting go of her elbow and opening the door wider.

**********

_'It's looks even bigger on the inside,'_ she marveled, turning her head this way and that to catch sight of all the antiques and draperies adorning the hallway they were walking through. She remembered going into a mansion only once before, when she had been very little but it had never been as extravagant as this one.

Irie Shoichi, the red-head who Yukio now knew was the head butler of the mansion, turned to look back at her. "Sawada-san, could you please walk a little faster? Byakuran-san is waiting to meet you."

"Ah, sorry," she apologized, running a little to catch up to Irie. As he had explained to her as they walked, the owner and head of the mansion was Byakuran. He was originally Italian but moved to Japan to expand his family's business. The mansion was a heirloom from his grandmother and was about to be torn down when Byakuran decided to move in. He re-built the entire place and had been living here ever since. Since Yukio was someone who stumbled upon the mansion by accident, Byakuran had been informed of her presence and, as the master of the house, was to meet her before she could do anything else.

"Um Irie-san," she spoke up timidly, half-jogging to keep up with Irie's longer strides. "What kind of man is Byakuran-san?"

Irie paused for a moment, unsure of how to answer the question. "He is a very unique man," he finally said and Yukio wondered just what kind of unique this Byakuran was; there were many definitions for that word. "You could say he's one of a kind. He's a bit eccentric but he's easy enough to get along with as long as he doesn't lose his temper."

_'In other words, don't get him angry,'_ surmised Yukio. Irie's explanation didn't make her feel any better though. Her legs still felt a little wobbly; what if she made the wrong impression on Byakuran? Would he refuse to let her use the telephone and kick her out to fend for herself? Possible worst-case scenarios swirled around in Yukio's mind and, for the fifth time that day, she cursed her bad luck and wondered what kind of horrible star she had been born under.

They finally reached a room filled with lavish and expensive furniture that were so impeccably clean Yukio felt bad for just thinking of sitting down on them. In the center of the room, seated on the largest sofa covered with white pillows and fluffy cushions was a man with equally white spiky hair eating marshmallows out of a bag on the coffee table in front of him.

Byakuran, Yukio assumed and instinctively felt afraid. She wasn't sure what it was that made her feel frightened, just that there was something wrong with the relaxed-looking man in front of her; something she couldn't place.

"Ah Sho-chan," greeted Byakuran, munching on another white marshmallow. His eyes were closed in his fox-like smile, the small purple tattoo under one of his eyes curving upwards as if smiling as well. "Did you bring our guest in?"

"Yes Byakuran-san, she's right here." Irie stepped slightly aside to reveal Yukio (she had been behind him when they entered the room), standing with her head a little bowed and her hands grasping at the fabric of her jacket.

"This is Sawada Yukio-san."

Byakuran's eyes snapped open, revealing light purple eyes that were like steel, piercing through Yukio.

"Yukio-chan," he murmured, his voice suddenly very quiet compared to his earlier cheerful tone. "Even the name is the same."

_'Eh? What does he mean by that?'_ Before she had time to ponder that statement or Byakuran's almost wistful expression, the white-haired man was all smiles again, munching on another white confection and gesturing for her to sit down.

"You must be tired after walking through the forest. The mansion's pretty deep into the place since I didn't want any nosy people coming to bother me. Honestly, I'm surprised anyone found this place. Marshmallow, Yukio-chan?" His cheerful chatter ended as abruptly as it began as he held up his bag of marshmallow to her, the white confections like large white bulbs of budding blossoms.

"N-No thank you," she declined, gently pushing away the bag. "I'm not very hungry. I just wanted to know if you had a phone I could use to call my family."

"Sorry," he apologized but not sounding very apologetic. His tone was too playful. "Since we're so deep in the forest it's almost next to impossible to get phone lines hooked up to here. I have a cell phone but unfortunately, it's out of batteries right now and I've lost the charger." Byakuran laughed, looking up at Irie standing behind the couch Yukio was on.

"Help me find it, alright Sho-chan?"

"Yes Byakuran-san," the butler intoned, his expression suggesting that he had done this hundreds of times before.

_'It must be a daily routine here,'_ inferred Yukio, the nagging sense that something was very, very wrong here. The fact that the phones weren't working and Byakuran's cell phone had died at the same time was far too coincidental for Yukio's liking. Her instincts whispered to her, telling her to get out before it was too late.

She tried smiling, trying to appear as unworried as possible. "Is that so?" she said, drawing Byakuran's attention back to her. "I'll be going then. My parents are probably worrying about me right now."

"Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you Yukio-chan~" Byakuran sing-songed, in a way that made Yukio stiffen with indescribable fear. "There's a storm coming and it wouldn't be good to be caught in it when you're surrounded by trees."

"Storm?" repeated Yukio, confused. "But the weather forecast said today would be--"

A frighteningly loud roar of thunder shook the chandelier hanging above them, the sky behind the window suddenly a heavy, dirty, metal gray. Yukio let out a small 'eep' of surprise, looking out fearfully through the window. Byakuran watched her, his smile widening.

"Yukio-chan," he began, popping another marshmallow into his mouth and speaking in the same sing-songy way that showed how happy he was. "Why don't you stay the night?"

* * *

**AN: **And that's it for chapter one. And I can't believe I just started another new story when I haven't finished a single one of my other stories that are rotting away on my computer. *weepweep*

**Muse: **(points at the emo-ing mass that is the author) Anyone want her to continue?


	2. Room and Dinner

**AN:** Apparently, I can't write horror stories. The cause is most likely the fact that I never read horror stories or watch horror movies.

Yet I'm writing trying to write horror right now. Ironic, no?

**Muse: **Get on with it already or I'm bringing out the Twilight.

**Disclaimer: KHR does not belong to me. Mostly because I can't draw.**

**Warnings: Vague creepiness, pseudo-horror (should that really be a warning?) and gender-bending  
**

* * *

Irie flicked on a light switch at the beginning of the second floor hallway, the candle-shaped bulbs screwed into the Victorian-styled lamp holders on the wall turning on immediately. He walked briskly to the very end of the hallway where the thin outlines of the third floor stairs could be seen.

Irie stopped in front of the last door on the left, labeled 27 (1). He pulled out a set of keys from inside his suit and used the key with the same 27 label to unlock the door. Yukio noticed that out of all the keys, the 27 key was the most polished and well-kept; it still retained it's golden luster while all the other keys looked too aged to even be kept on the key loop.

"This is your room," Irie said unnecessarily, clapping twice. The lights turned on, much to Yukio's amazement. She had heard of the automatic lights that came on if you clapped but she didn't know people actually had it installed in their houses. Only the elite rich could afford it, which spoke volumes about Byakuran.

The room itself was colored in a pleasant, warm orange color. A beanie bag lay in the right corner of the room, looking like it had recently been sat in. A dark rose wood desk with three drawers stood up against the wall opposite of the beanie bag, a matching rose wood chair pushed against it. Several empty notebooks were stacked neatly at the corner of the desk with a red mechanical pencil put on top like a cherry on a cake. There was also a bedside table where a small reading lamp stood with a journal leaning against it. The bed was the same warm orange color as the walls and in the middle of the bed, leaning against the several large pillows, was an orange lion plushie identical to the one she had at home. At first glance the room looked welcoming but Yukio couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that something was _off_.

Why did Irie specifically show her this room? Couldn't he have just opened the first door on the floor and gave her that room? But no, with the conditions the other keys were in, she figured they would have crumbled inside the keyhole.

That led her to another question. Why was the 27 key the only one that looked new? As the head butler, shouldn't Irie have the responsibility of keeping all the keys in the same condition? And why was the room arranged just like the way Yukio had always wanted her room to look like?

"Is something wrong Sawada-san?" Irie asked when he noticed Yukio simply standing in the middle of the room, staring at the plushie on the bed.

"Huh?" She turned around, blinking when she saw the slightly concerned expression. She flushed as she realized how weird she must have looked, staring off into space. "No, it's nothing. I was just surprised at how nice this room looked. Is it really alright if I stay here? This room looks rather personal."

"You are the only one who has ever used this room," Irie said. "It's the only room where the lights will come on if you clap because you've always liked how much easier it was then finding the light switch in the dark."

Yukio stiffened.

"What do you mean 'I've always liked how much easier it was'?" She asked. Truthfully, she did like how clapping made the lights automatically turn on but she had never mentioned that to Byakuran or Irie.

Irie's eyes widened, as he realized he said something he shouldn't have but before Yukio could press him for answers, a bell sounded. It was like a thousand wind chimes amplified, the rings high-pitched and incessant with each note melting into one another. They chimed for nearly a minute, making Yukio want to cringe in the same way one would after hearing nails on a chalkboard.

"The flower bells," Irie said, his eyes and expression suddenly guarded. "It's dinner time."

"I'm not hungry," Yukio automatically said. She didn't know much about Irie or Byakuran but they seemed to know quite a bit about her. That was definitely a bad sign and it made one thing certain for Yukio: she did not want to be in the same room with either of them.

"I know," Irie said, his voice too distant and unattached for Yukio to understand what he was feeling. "But Byakuran-san has been eating alone for a long, long time and he hates it. He wants someone to eat with him."

_'Does that give him stalking rights or something?'_ Yukio wondered wryly. _'And if he didn't want to eat alone, shouldn't he just get Irie-san to eat with him? The two of them seem close enough.'_

Irie looked straight at her, as if reading her thoughts. "He wants to eat with _you_, Sawada-san."

And some sort of strange, bubbling nostalgic feeling became known in her mind, a feeling of deep pitying sadness that made Yukio's heart ache in a way that could not be described--only felt.

"Okay," she said without thinking and followed Irie out of the room.

But from the corner of her eye, just before Irie closed the door Yukio caught a glimpse of a picture framed on the wall. Wondering how she could have missed that, she leaned her head back into the room to get a better look. Irie made a startled noise as he had almost closed the door on Yukio's head and she quickly apologized, saying she wanted to make sure of something. She then turned back, looking at the wall where she saw the frame.

It was gone.

Yukio frowned, confused. When Irie asked her what she was looking at, she told him it was nothing and followed Irie down to dinner. She reasoned to herself; it was probably a trick of light, or some sort of hallucination because of how tired she was. Her intuition, however, told her otherwise.

Because she knew--even if she didn't have the best eyesight in the world and she was tired and fatigued from walking all day--that the person in the picture had been her.

******************

Eating dinner with a host as strange as Byakuran, Yukio decided, was one of the most awkward affairs in the world.

The disheartening thought that she was out in the woods--albeit, in a very luxurious and fancy mansion--while the rest of her family and friends were at home, most likely worried and wondering where she was and she, being unable to see them until the next morning, was enough to completely dampen her appetite. That and Byakuran refused to stop staring at her as they sat across from each other at the ridiculously long dinner table. He had spoken with her about a few things, his tone light and inviting but Yukio was too upset to try and make small talk, which led to Byakuran's staring and the awkward, weird silence hanging above them.

And despite how appetizingly fancy the plates of food looked as they were brought out of the kitchen, Yukio could only wish she was at home eating her mom's home-cooked meals surrounded by her family and friends (whom stayed over so often they might as well have been second family). She picked listlessly at her food, taking in small bites every now and then, not even tasting it before it was down her throat.

She almost blanched though, when dessert came around and a large clear glass bowl filled with five different flavors of ice cream covered with sprinkles, wafers and peppermints was put in front of her. She took a look at the spoon in her hand and then back at the monstrosity that looked like Frankenstein's creation had he been an ice cream maker.

She blinked. Once. Twice.

_'Byakuran expects me to eat this?'  
_

Apparently so, because said head of the house was already happily munching on his own ice-cream-turned-Frankenstein's-creation-sundae. Yukio, though, never had much of a sweet tooth and could barely look at her dessert let alone stomach it. She wondered if now would be a good time to excuse herself from the table. A loud '_boom_' of thunder suddenly echoed outside, as if warning Yukio not to.

_'Even the weather's being weird today,_' she noticed, looking towards one of the drawn curtain windows.

"Something wrong Yukio-chan?"

Yukio, startled at Byakuran's abrupt question--he had been so quiet since the main course that Yukio thought he had stopped conversation altogether--jumped in her seat. "N-No, it's nothing." She tried sounding reassuring but failed, and she wanted to hit herself for stuttering.

Byakuran didn't seem to mind at all. He only smiled wider, the drops of ice cream that had gotten on his face making him appear more childish, almost defenseless and vulnerable. "Yukio-chan, has anyone told you how cute you are?"

Yukio spluttered. "Excuse me, what?"

Byakuran chuckled, twirling the spoon around in his hand. "Your reaction's just as I expected. In my opinion, that makes you even cuter."

Yukio didn't know if her host was trying to harass her or actually being truthful. It was hard to tell with the way he smiled and kept his eyes closed.

Outside, the storm seemed to have diminished in ferocity and Yukio faintly hoped it would be gone by tomorrow morning.

"The storm's going to last until tomorrow noon at the very least," Byakuran stated, sounding very pleased.

"Yukio-chan, you don't mind staying here for a while, do you? I wouldn't want you to get lost and injured going through the forest in this kind of weather." Byakuran's tone could have passed off as caring if it wasn't for the wide smile on his face. The smile only made his words seem falsely caring, artificial like the sweets he ate.

"No, I shouldn't trouble you anymore," Yukio interjected, her intuition hissing urgently in her ear that the sooner she left this mansion behind, the sooner she would be safe.

And while braving a storm in a forest was decidedly not safe, Yukio just knew it was less dangerous than facing whatever it was that lurked in this mansion and behind Byakuran's smiling face.

Byakuran laughed, a loud chuckle where he opened his mouth wide and let his voice carry out through the dining room. It seemed to echo louder than the thunder outside.

"Don't be silly Yukio-chan~."

Yukio felt herself shudder every time Byakuran said her name. He always spoke it like he was singing it, enunciating and drawing out the syllables in a way that was only fitting for a child.

"It's too dangerous for anyone to go out in this kind of storm," Byakuran chided.

As if in agreement, the rain falling outside became a roaring torrent and the thunder came down so hard it shook the silverware on the table.

'_The weather seems to be agreeing with Byakuran a lot today.'_ She mused, but brushed the thought away as silly. It was just coincidence, like when you were in down mood and it just happened to be raining on that day. But did the intensity of the weather usually follow how a person felt? Was it normal to have a storm suddenly strike up even when the weather report had claimed it would be sunny for the week?

"Yukio-chan," Byakuran called out again, bringing her attention back to him. "You've been spaced out all during dinner, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine Byakuran-san," she insisted, though she made no effort to look at him. Instead, she stared at her dinner as if willing it to turn into something different.

Byakuran's impish smile grew wider, perhaps thinking how cute Yukio looked in her attempt to avoid looking at him. "You don't have to force yourself Yukio-chan. If you're tired, just say so. I'll call Sho-chan and have him take you to your room."

"I'm fine Byakuran-san," she repeated, this time louder.

* * *

**AN: **I feel like I'm inverting back to elementary school horror. D=

Sorry for the abrupt ending, I was aiming for something more suspenseful but I rather fail at horror so...yeah.

(1)--Raise your hand if you knew this was coming. And you can totally tell how symbolic I'm being here.


	3. Dreaming and Tea

_She heard her name being called and turned, almost shrieking when she felt herself being lifted. She laughed when she saw the familiar color of her lover's hair and batted at it, insisting that he put her down. He, being who he was, refused and continued to carry her through the garden._

_She laughed, helplessly. What am I going to with you, she said but let him carry her anyways._

_You'll stay with me, was his not-quite answer and smiled at her in a way that hid his eyes._

_She laughed and laughed, until her laughter didn't sound natural anymore. It sounded forced, bordering on hysterical and he grew alarmed._

_He called out her name but she continued to laugh. It was a hyena laugh—she laughed like she had found a dead cat mangled and hung on a fence and saw that it's eyes were missing. She laughed at the image of that dead cat, finding it ridiculously funny. It was so funny that she felt her lungs could shrivel from the laughter._

_Spit bubbled up in her throat and she choked, but still continued to laugh. She even laughed as red blossomed across her lovely, white dress. She felt herself losing feeling in her fingers and in her toes the more she laughed and the more the red unfurled across the expanse of torso._

_Her laughter was dissolving into chokes but now she was choking on both blood and spit. The red had expanded past her torso and was now reaching past the collar of her dress and up her neck._

_And as the blood—like some living thing that had grown inside her for so long that it ended up festering and becoming an ugly sore that decided to finally burst today—crawled around her neck, she saw her lover crying, clutching onto her and pleading for her not to go._

_She had never seen him cry before and she was touched that she had become important enough for him to shed tears. But it was too late._

"_Oh Byakuran," she whispered as the blood completely encircled her throat. _

_There was a 'snap!', like a clam shutting it's mouth closed after ingesting something—like the bones in someone's throat had shattered._

_An inhuman howl broke the tranquility of the garden._

_The blood trickled down from her corpse, the 'plops' as they landed on the grass overwhelmed by the screams of a grief-stricken and maddened being._

"_Yukio! Don't leave me Yukio!"_

* * *

Sawada Yukio awoke with a start, gasping for air. Her hands reached up to her throat and felt the skin there. She touched her torso as well and even turned on the nearby bed light to make sure.

She saw, to her immense relief, that there was no blood on either her throat or torso. She sighed, turning on her side.

'_What was that?'_ she wondered; it didn't feel like an ordinary nightmare.

'_Dreams are just dreams,'_ she told herself. _'No matter how real they feel.'_

She wondered why Byakuran was in her dream though, and then wanted to bury herself in the pillow when she remembered that they had been lovers.

'_God, that is so weird.'_ Yukio firmly told herself that she absolutely did not see Byakuran that way. Sure, he was rather handsome but there was something _off_ about him, something that didn't seem right to Yukio.

She told herself to stop worrying about it though, because she would be leaving this place tomorrow. The thunderstorm had stopped after dinner and Byakuran, with a cheery smile covered in ice cream, told her she could leave tomorrow morning.

"But only if you have tea with me before you go," Byakuran said. She had hesitated, not wanting to stay in the mansion anymore than she had to, but Byakuran had offered her shelter for the night and it was the least she could do to repay his hospitalities.

She had agreed then and Byakuran, for the rest of the night before Yukio went off to her room, would not stop smiling. Granted, Byakuran seemed to be smiling all the time anyways but his smile had actually looked…happy.

'_Argh, why am I reading into this?' _Yukio pushed her head against the pillow, trying to expel out all her thoughts that seemed to be circulating around the strange owner of the mansion. _'Just go to sleep, have tea with him tomorrow morning and leave,' _she kept telling herself. She continued to repeat this to herself until her eyes began to close again as she started to slip into unconsciousness.

'_I'll be home before I know it.'_

* * *

The next morning arrived earlier than Yukio expected. She had slept soundly with the thought of returning home and had forgotten all about the dream, only the vague feeling of uneasiness accompanying her as she dressed. A maid she had not seen the night before escorted her from her room to the backyard where Byakuran was already waiting at a table seated for two.

"Good morning Yukio-chan," he greeted, his smile as bright as the sun.

"Good morning," she answered, inclining her head a little.

Byakuran chuckled as she sat down. "So reserved Yukio-chan. Aren't we already close friends?"

'_Since when?' _she wondered, but kept quiet as she picked up the tea cup. She took a few sips, glancing up to see if Byakuran was drinking as well. He wasn't and, only to her slight surprise, was watching her.

She pretended not to notice, hoping if she did that it would prevent the tea time from being prolonged. But the silence was getting harder and harder to endure as she continued to drink from her cup that seemed to never empty. She took a big of a sip as she could but when she put the cup down, it looked like she hadn't touched the tea at all.

She heard the crinkle of plastic across from her as Byakuran opened up a bag of marshmallows he had been holding in his lap.

"You're so cute Yukio-chan," she heard him say and she could practically hear the smile in those words. "But drink all that tea in a rush, or you might get sick~"

She took a deep breath, pushing the saucer away. "I think it's about time I got going, Byakuran-san. I don't want to intrude upon you anymore."

"Are you sure?" was Byakuran's question as he chewed on a marshmallow. "You don't know the way back, do you Yukio-chan?"

It had not occurred to Yukio that she did not, indeed, have any idea how to return to Namimori. Her main concern had been leaving this mansion so as to ease the strange uneasiness inside her .

"There's a path in the forest," she lied. "I just went off of it for a bit when I saw the mansion but once I find it again, I'll be able to get straight home."

"Is that so?" Byakuran took another marshmallow out of the bag, chewing on it contemplatively. He swallowed it, then sighed.

"How disappointing. And here I thought I would get to spend more time with Yukio-chan." He looked straight at her, his purple irises piercing her warm, brown ones. "It would have been nice if we could have stayed like this forever."

The way he said those last words made a shiver go down Yukio's spine. She would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the statement if Byakuran didn't look so serious about it.

She stood up.

"Thank you for letting me stay here for the night," she said in a rush. "I'll take my leave now."

Byakuran reached over the table, taking hold of Yukio's wrist. She nearly jumped when their skin came in contact, shocked by how cold his hand was. "Before that Yukio-chan, won't you look around the garden with me?"

"The garden?"

Byakuran let go of her wrist and gestured behind him. A wall of white lilies stood imposingly tall, the gate that hid many other bushes of flowers behind it. Yukio wondered how she had not noticed the flowers before when they had been sitting right next to it. Then again, she had been more focused on finishing her tea and leaving to pay much attention to her surroundings. Still, she was sure those flowers weren't there before…

"It's something my grandfather planted before he handed the mansion over to me," Byakuran began explaining as he stood up from the table. "Won't you walk through it with me? It'll be a good way to work off the calories from the snacks."

'_You're the only one who ate any snacks,'_ Yukio mentally stated but started to follow Byakuran into the garden anyways. It would have been plain rude of her to outright reject his request and it wasn't like walking through the garden would take all that much time.

She just hoped she could leave before evening.

* * *

**AN: **So yeah...hi. I'm still alive, believe it or not. And it's a really short chapter but the next one will be longer. I hope. _  
_


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